Dear friends;
I have some very, very, VERY important stuff to tell you this month. This stuff is such important stuff that I have temporarily stopped helping Mom interview Doctors - oh, wait, that is the first good news, we think we might HAVE one, and my Mom will tell you all about this new person in her own column. What I want to tell you about is something that you need to know for your own health and it is because we have been seeing LOTS of all of these things at our hospital this month. So here goes, and I hope you are all paying good attention to me.
#1. You really, really need to be taking your heartworm pill every month! We are seeing lots of heartworm disease and our Doctors think that it is because of all of our wet icky weather this spring and summer. Our last little heartworm positive dog is going to be OK but she had to get some very painful injections in her back with a big long needle - I tell you, it hurt me just to watch it - and she will have lots of heart and lung damage for the rest of her life and it cost her Momma more money than it would have cost to just give the darned heartworm pills for the rest of that cute little Yorkshire Terrier's life! Please, my friends - it doesn't matter of you are a big or a little dog, or if your person thinks that keeping you mostly inside will protect you. It won't, and the mosquitoes that carry heartworm disease will think you are tasty and will seek you out and find you. And if you are taking your heartworm pills every month like you should, you will be OK and just get an itchy little mosquito bite, but if you forgot to take your pill, you could wind up like my little Yorky friend. And that's too bad.
#2. We have had TWO dogs come into the hospital dead or next to dead this month, because they got caught by a coyote. My dears, please don't go outside at night without your person with you! Coyotes are everywhere in our area. Mom even saw one last night at the corner of Schaumburg and Knollwood. This one was sitting on the sidewalk looking like he was waiting for a crossing guard to wave him across the street. Coyotes think that little dogs and cats are very scrumptious and deliciously munchable, and I bet you didn't know that they can run a lot faster than you can. Did you know that there are a lot of big-deal scientific studies that show that coyotes in the suburbs grow bigger and faster and there are even more of them than there are out in the country? This is because they are so good at surviving on garbage and on the food that people leave out for wildlife. That is a big mistake, to feed wildlife, and I bet that the dumb people who do it are not thinking that they might be feeding up the very animal that is going to kill their neighbor's dog or cat - or their own. But it happens all the time, and there is even more bad news, and that is my next point.
#3. There is another very bad reason to feed wildlife, and that is because doing this draws lots of raccoons. Now, I know what you are thinking: "Awwww....... those are the CUTEST little masked faces." But did you know that raccoons carry some very dangerous diseases that can affect you and your people? It is true! Raccoons are one of the biggest carriers of rabies, and they also carry some nasty worms that can infect people, especially children. Did you know that some of these worms can live in your EYEBALLS? Is that gross, or what??? Can you imagine having your person's children lose their eyesight because they picked up worms from being outside in their own yard, just because your person wanted to feed animals that should be foraging on their own, for their own food? I want you ALL to talk to your people about this. And have them bring us a poop sample (one of yours of course, not theirs!) very soon, so we can make sure thta you do not have any of those nasty worms.
#4. I want you all to know that I think I will go completely stir-crazy if I have to listen to my Mom or our Nurses do another talk to one of our clients about infected ears or infected skin or infected paws. Now, listen up, everyone: it is WET and STICKY weather out there! And there are a lot of cruddy germs and yeasts and bugs out there that like to live in moist and warm areas. I hope I don't have to go into a lot of detail here, but please, we all have such places on our bodies, and you know where they are. So when your ears or your pits or your crotch or under your tail or those little spaces between your toes start to itch, PLEASE run to your people and ask them to take a look right away! If there are any wet or red or smelly spots on you, you need to see your vet quick so they can fix it before it turns into a really big problem. Sometimes, it is so EASY to fix but it won't be if you just ignore it and hope it will go away. Right now, one of my favorite big Newfies at our hospital has an ear infection so terrible that it is costing his Mom a LOT of money to fix it, because we had to get him a special antibiotic that cost hundreds of dollars, and she has to bring him in every day to get his ears cleaned. Maybe it would be best if you ask your person to do what my Mom does for me: she lays me down once a week and rolls me all over and checks me all over to make sure that I am OK and don't have any problems anywhere. She looks in my ears and in my mouth and in all those places I mentioned above, and it only takes a few minutes a week. I am sure that if you ask, your person would love you enough to do that for you!
OK, buckaroos - it is high time that I get back to work, because even though we now probably have a new Doctor, we are still looking for a new Nurse and I have to go do some interviewing. It is just not safe to leave these things to my Mom. Until next month, my dears!
Your Friend,
LIZZIE
